With some of yesterday’s bumper crop of apples and others already ready and waiting, I’ve been getting another batch of cider underway. Last night I separated the good apple flesh (unpeeled) from the cores and more marked bits and cooked both pots with some added water until soft. Both were left covered overnight and, this morning, I’ve been processing them giving a number of results – juice, puree, pulpy flesh and rough leftovers for the compost heap.

I diluted the juice a bit by running some water through the straining bag so what I collected had a gravity of about 1.030, bumped up to 1.040 by adding about 300g of brewing sugar dissolved in a litre of water (that also gave me enough volume to fill a demijohn without too much headspace). That’s now set to ferment with the second half of the cider yeast packet from the Crossmyloof brew shop.

Meanwhile, the first batch is almost ready to bottle. It had stopped bubbling, although it briefly picked up after I moved it yesterday. Once I get that bottled, I’ll think about doing a cider #3.